JAZZ REVIEW : Is She Blue? Yes, but Gallinger Makes the Best of It : The Garden Grove-based singer was getting over a bug and performing with two unfamiliar musicians. Still, she performed the standards with remarkable enthusiasm.

Karen Gallinger was having a bad day. At least, that’s what the singer told the small crowd that had assembled Sunday evening at El Matador to hear her sing.

In a first set in which the Garden Grove-based vocalist’s between-tune patter was nearly as entertaining as her enthusiastic standard renditions, Gallinger sporadically chronicled a list of the day’s misfortunes:

Charles Otwell, the former music director for Poncho Sanchez who had been advertised as her accompanist, was detained in San Francisco. At the last minute, Gallinger got guitarist Dave Murdy to fill in--they’d played a couple of tunes together during some bygone jam session. Drummer Peter Pfiefer, with whom she’d never worked before, was also a late addition.

The singer was also recovering from some kind of bug that affected her voice and breath. “I normally don’t sound like a baritone,” she told the audience, later asking whether anyone had “a spare lung.” That, coupled with “the p.a. system from hell,” as she referred to the El Matador sound system , did not seem to bode well for the evening.

But Gallinger’s enthusiastic delivery of tunes such as “Like Someone in Love” and Sonny Rollins’ “St. Thomas” removed any suspicion that her voice might be beyond use. Putting the best face on the situation, she sang with a depth and tone reminiscent of Sarah Vaughan while utilizing some of Vaughan’s stylistic playfulness and tendency to roll out vowel sounds. She scatted in short bursts, swinging away with octave jumps, sliding lines and wah-wah effects. The fact that her pitch fell a bit short at times in the upper registers didn’t stop her from climbing there. Her timing, well-supported by the unrehearsed rhythm section, was right on.

Especially pleasing was her duo exchange with bassist Benjamin May during “Skylark,” in which Gallinger repeated phrases for emphasis and May added double-stopped tones in response. May also delivered an expressive bowed solo during Clare Fischer’s “Morning,” paced by Pfiefer’s steamy brush work.

The trio, without Gallinger, found common ground on “Stella by Starlight” and “My Favorite Things,” both led by Murdy’s strong chording and pointed, single-note runs. During “St. Thomas,” the guitarist rocked inside the tune’s Latin beat before Pfiefer, using brushes, soloed with strings of surging tom-tom rolls. Gallinger, whose voice had softened somewhat by this point, put a light touch to the lyrics and scatted with hints of breath in her voice.

Gallinger closed the set with “Every Day I Have the Blues,” an appropriate choice considering the difficulties she’d faced. The rollicking number allowed her to put the roughness in her voice to good use, and the band, powered by Murdy’s B.B. King vamp, finally worked itself up to Gallinger’s level of enthusiasm.

Who could help wondering what the singer would be like on a good day?